Practical ideas for facilitating workshops & people development

Living in the country for most of life I have often been envious of the professional development opportunities and professional association meetings available to my city counterparts. The ability to finish work and join an event with like minded professionals when you work in regional areas requires planning, travel and time.

For years I have been using web based “on line rooms” to deliver training, facilitate and run meetings with regional participants. My first attempt was in the early 2000’s when we ran a Government funded trial using the school of the air system to provide training for rural women in South Australia. The success of this pilot and the seeing the excitement for women being given an opportunity from the home office inspired me to persist with the technology – which still often lets us down.

As the technology is getting cheaper, easier and more accessible to use I have decided to combine my passion for mentoring and developing people with this virtual technology.

And so the Coo-ee Collective has been founded! Initially Coo-ee will focus on providing virtual mentoring for groups of people in agriculture and regions, other products will be added over time.

Our pilot mentoring group is well underway with seven rural women from across Australia and one from New Zealand meeting once a month to provide support, inspiration and share ideas with each other. Susie Green from SA is one of the participants – her comments are below…

“Coo-ee Collective has overcome geographical barriers to provide me with a unique opportunity to connect with like-minded rural women from across Australia and New Zealand. It provides a safe, structured and supportive environment to share experiences and emotions without judgement, competition or jealousy. It allows participants to be vulnerable without fear of shame and support each other as we work through challenges.” – Susie Green

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In 2013 I wrote a blog about learning a new skill and related it to my attempts to learn to ski. Well I’ve been back in the snow – this time to South Korea at Yongpong reluctantly having another attempt to ski.

Sitting at the bottom of the slopes in the morning watching I reflected on what I learnt last time, three years ago. I’ve only had one practice for an afternoon in those three years in NZ so my skills have not improved greatly!

Two things came to mind

The importance of practice – not surprisingly! As adults we often attend a training course and expect to walk out the door with all the skills to take on something new. In reality training course open our eyes to all there is to know about the topic and we often leave feeling like we have a whole new journey ahead. The only way to integrate these new skills into our subconscious is to practice, practice and practice some more. We also need good constructive feedback from someone we trust who has the skills we are looking to gain, someone who is able to not only “do” the skill but also able to teach. Who can you find to mentor you to fast track those new skills?

The ability to be vulnerable and even “childlike” when learning something new. Being prepared to behave like a child and let go of our adult preconceived ideas – learn in a child like way. Be vulnerable – who cares if we get it wrong, it looks funny, we are not perfect or even hopeless when we start‽ (Like me on the skis) The only person that really gets concerned about this is us. Change the frame of mind to one of “this is fun and it doesn’t matter as long as I’m learning.”

2015 was a very full year for me and something had to give. Unfortunately that something was my blog. 2016 is shaping up to be similar to 2015. I will endeavour to find some reflection time throughout the year to pen some ideas and thoughts for Workshops With Wow.

I hope you have all had a great start to the year and 2016 full or learning!

A farm advisory board is a group of six to eight people who get together regularly to help manage a farm business. It is generally made-up of members of the family plus one or two of their key, trusted advisors.

Farm Advisory Boards provide a structured process for farm families to discuss key business management decisions such as finance, land purchase or leasing opportunities and machinery replacement, just to name a few.

Advisory Boards are different to Boards of Management (required for company structures). In an Advisory Board, members are there to provide ‘advice’ only, and it is up to the business partners/legal owners to make the final decision. This provides some level of comfort for farm family members, as all the final decisions still remain the responsibility of the farm business owners.

How often do they meet?

Farm Advisory Boards will meet three to four times throughout the year to discuss the strategic management of a business. The timings of these meetings will depend upon the availability of board members and farm operations. (For example you don’t want to schedule them right in the middle of seeding!)

What might a Farm Advisory Board discuss?

Agendas for farm advisory board meetings are set by the chair in cooperation with the farming family, and should be circulated to all advisory board members at least one week prior to a meeting.

Key reports should also be circulated to farm advisory board members at this time. Each farming business will be different, but the reports may include:

Minutes/notes from the last meeting

Operational reports (cropping and livestock)

Financial reports (benchmarking, actual to budget reports)

Special reports on strategic opportunities or threats to the business

How do I know if I need a farm advisory board?

Farm Advisory Board meetings provide the business with a dedicated forum where time is spent discussing the business in a structured way.

If you find that you

do not have any spare time because you are too busy doing operational ‘stuff’,

have the next generation entering the business,

are not spending the time to consider the future direction of your business and family, or

if you are not adequately meeting the legal responsibilities of the business, then a farm advisory board may be the answer.

What are the advantages to establishing a farm advisory board?

Farm Advisory Board meetings provide farm business partners with the rigor and time to strategically review the direction of their business, and time to prioritise the key tasks for the business, outside operational deadlines.

They provide an opportunity for all members of the farm business to have a say in a formal environment, on key strategic decisions for the business. They also provide a place for the next generation to learn the ‘business side’ of the farm, with the full support of the older generation and their trusted advisors.

Boards of management are key risk management tools for many businesses outside of agriculture. Boards, advisory or management, mean that more than one person knows the direction and operation of the business, and there are processes and plans in place to ensure business continuance should something happen to key family members.

What are the disadvantages to establishing a farm advisory board?

Often as sole operators, the thought of sharing the decision making in a family farming business is uncomfortable. This is perceived to be one of the biggest disadvantages in a family business, but once in operation, most farm families with boards, believe this is one of its greatest advantages.

It is often the time pressures on collecting the relevant information and hosting a board meeting that is the hardest issue for businesses with farm advisory boards. If you are committed to the process, then the benefits of creating these reports, and spending the time, far outweigh the hassles.

Do I need to pay the independent advisory board member?

Yes. Most professionals will charge their normal daily rate for preparation and meeting time. Meeting expenses, such as board room hire, independent board member travel, morning and afternoon tea costs, should be met by the farm business.

Using technology for workshops is something I have been doing for many years, running webinars and having guest speakers Skype into a workshop session. Earlier this year we attempted this differently with one of our participants, Jeanette Gellard, joining on Skype from South Korea for a full two days. Quite an achievement for Jeanette when the rest of the group were all face to face in a rather noisy room in a city hotel and the workshop was very interactive!

We simply connected the iPad to a speaker and had a headset on hand for practice activities. Fortunately the internet didn’t let us down and the participant enjoyed the experience and the interaction with the group.

Here are Jeanette’s comments about the experience…..

When is too far away, really too far way? Over the last few years I’ve come to realise that the answer to that question is, Never! Thanks to the development of our communications technology, distance no longer needs to be the barrier that it once was. Skype, Facetime, Viber, Twitter, Instagram, Linkedin, GoTo Meeting and a plethora of other software programs and applications make it relatively easy to stay connected to others. Whether its video, audio, text or image based our capacity to communicate with others and participate in events is really only limited by our access to a good quality internet connection and a device that runs the relevant program or application.

Living in South Korea I have the privilege of being able to access some of the fastest internet connections in the world. What this means in a practical sense is that I get high quality video streamed through my computer or smart-phone which allows me to participate ‘virtually’ in a range of activities from workshops and study tutorials to conversations with friends and family ‘over a cup of coffee’. Over the past six months I’ve ‘attended’ two workshops in Adelaide, South Australia from the comfort of my apartment in Busan, South Korea, some 7,853 km away! Both events were successful from my perspective due to the following key elements.

The openness of the workshop organisers in considering the inclusion of a ‘virtual’ participant

The setup of the workshop area which enabled me to see presenters and also for other participants to be aware that I was ‘in attendance’

The delivery of presentation material prior to or during the workshop via email so that I had the same information as everyone else

Having a ‘buddy’ who checked up on me throughout the workshop (Could I hear? Could I see? Did I want to say anything?)

The acceptance of the other workshop participants in having a ‘virtual’ classmate and their willingness to engage with me on a one-on-one basis using the available technology. This included participants randomly ‘dropping by’ to chat with me during workshop breaks.

Being included in group photos!

From my end there were a couple of things that I put in place to ensure that my participation would be as positive as possible.

I set myself up in a quiet spot away from distractions and noise

Used the mute button on my microphone when I wasn’t speaking to make sure any background noise at my end (paper shuffling, typing, heavy breathing…..) wasn’t distracting other workshop participants

Kept my device on charge throughout the workshop

So next time you think something is too far away to attend, think again! Ask the organisers whether it’s possible to make a ‘virtual’ appearance. Jeanette Gellard, Innovative Influences jeanette@innovativeinfluences.com.au

When it comes to getting the word out there, social networks like Facebook offer a great way to engage with potential customers and stakeholders.

Not only is Facebook the second most visited website in Australia, it boasts the greatest audience engagement of any site, giving you access to a market that has a higher reach than even commercial tv.

On top of this, as a platform Facebook offers paid advertising tools that are second to none, which can give you feedback and metrics that will help you better target an audience as well as learning how effectively you’re conveying your message.

To help you communicate online, I’ve compiled a few tips to get you started.

Engage with your audience. Ask questions, promote discussion, and prompt people to share or like your posts. By doing this, you’ll improve your engagement with your audience, and increase the likelihood that they will see future posts that you make. Facebook displays messages based upon what they think each individual user will want to see – making likes and comments an important metric for building your brand online.

Think about mobile users. The average Facebook user checks the website 14 times a day on their phone alone – so if your post or content is too long, or too hard to read on a phone, you’ll never connect to them.

Use multimedia! Video and well produced photography are incredibly popular formats on Facebook. With more than 4 billion video views on Facebook around the world each day, putting out interesting content will get people interested, and will mean that they’re more likely to spread the video or image to their friends – which is free advertising.

Use the timeline to your advantage. Add major events and dates for your business – this will help people search for and find things related to your business, and makes you look more legitimate in terms of search engine visibility.

When planning any training or extension events for adults consider what’s important for them to learn. The pioneer of adult learning was Malcolm Knowles, he identified the six principles of adult learning provided below.

1. Adults are internally motivated and self-directed

Encourage adults to take an active role in their own learning. Recognise their individual motivations for participating and remember we resist learning when we feel forced to participate.

Time spent establishing the group at the beginning to build trust is time well spent. It builds rapport with you as the facilitator/trainer and with the other members of the group encouraging participants to be actively involved. It can also provide an insight into the individuals motivations for attending.

Encourage participants to share and explore ideas before providing the facts.

Give constructive useful feedback – however, before doing this check in with the participants to ensure they are open to receiving it.

Choose activities that are relevant to the participants work and life.

2. Adults bring life experiences and knowledge to learning experiences. This may include work-related activities, family, previous education and general life experience.

Ask them to share their experiences about the topic and help them to connect their learnings with their work/life experiences.

Listen carefully to the experiences shared and relate this to the theory.

Adults learn as much from others in the room as they do from the trainer – provide opportunities to talk and share experiences.

3. Adults are goal-oriented

Ask them about their personal expectations / goals for the activity. Record these and reflect back on them during the workshop – are their goals being met? Check in at the end of the workshop to see if they have been achieved.

Be clear about your goals and outcomes for the workshop/activity.

Show them how specific learning experiences may fit with their goals.

4. Adults are relevancy-oriented

Provide choices for participants where appropriate so they can choose what they consider to be the most relevant to their circumstances.

Explain the relevance of activities you ask participants to do.

Relate theory to practical experiences and outcomes.

5. Adults are practical. They like to be able to apply their knowledge

Provide them with opportunities to visit trials or demonstrations – get them out in the field.

Include speakers who have been successful in applying the theory to explain or show how it worked in their circumstances.

Include practical activities where ever possible.

No-one likes to sit and listen all day! Especially farmers who are used to being active and outside.

6. Adult learners like to be respected for the considerable life experiences they bring.

Treated them as equals.

Provide opportunities for them to voice their own opinions.

Let them plan their next steps and take responsibility for their learning journey.

Provide support through coaching and mentoring.

Finally adults come along to training events and activities to network and meet other like minded people. Ensure everyone has the chance to introduce themselves to the group, provide clear easy to read name tags and allow time in the breaks for networking.

In agriculture we are often guilty of thinking in terms of industry types and then lumping farmers into one group. We then provide information to “suit all” instead of thinking about how people vary and how to most effectively target communication or extension information.

“They are farmers so don’t they all have the same problem and same needs?”

In the marketing world a significant amount of energy is spent defining target markets in order to be effective with a limited resource. Common segments include

Geographical

Demographic

Psychographic

Behavioural

How can we apply this is the agricultural sector?

1. Geographical – in terms of agriculture we do this quite well. We think about the location, rainfall, soil types of the farmers we are working with and whether the practice/ innovation we are encouraging them to adopt will fit within their system.

2. Demographic

Consider the stage of life cycle on the farm – is the business in wind down mode, or building for the next generation, how many families are being supported by the business? Is the next generation coming home or is this the end of the line for that farming family.

Education level will impact on approaches to analytical thinking vs intuitive thinking which in turn impacts on decision making processes.

Are we targeting a particular age group? Different age groups vary in their preferred means of communication, perspective and engagement methods.

Gender is another important consideration, not all farmers are male and the women on farms play an important role in farm decision making. Has the female been considered and included.

3. Psychographic – These are important considerations which are often completely overlooked.

They include the farmers status in the community, is he respected (a champion) and how important is it to be seen “doing the right thing”?

Values, beliefs and attitudes play a very important role in marketing. What are some of the generic values of the farmers we are working with and how can we tap into these to attract their attention?

Personality type analysis has been carried out in agriculture, this has been discussed in an earlier blog. Farmer personality types

Lifestyle grouping – are they a commercial farmer, a lifestyle farmer or perhaps a traditional farmer?

4. Behavioural

Think about where farmers sit of the adoption curve – how open are they to new innovation? Are they the first in the district to jump on board with a something new or do they like to sit back and watch until the early adopters have overcome any problems.

How loyal are they to a particular service, commodity and approach? The stronger the loyalty the more difficult the change.

Next time you are considering a communication or extension program spent some time thinking about your target audience and plan a strategic approach rather than jumping in with a generic one. I’d be keen to hear about the impacts!

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